Star Trek Ground Combat

In
an era of starships capable of firing on ground targets with pinpoint
accuracy, sending combat troops to die on
enemy fields might seem wasteful. This is even more true when you consider
that, even in the 2260's, the weapons of a Federation starship could be set for
a large-scale stun effect on the surface below ("A Piece of the
Action"[TOS2]). One can just imagine a grand army of soldiers
on a vast plain ready to meet any foe . . . except for the wide beam of light
that comes down from the sky and sends them all into blissful slumber.
(Granted, the Federation is not in
the business of pacifying hostile populations, unlike the Empire (which
pacifies its own).)

Nevertheless, there are
times when ground combat is required . . . one doesn't always have a starship at
one's disposal, and there are things even a starship cannot do. Thus,
although we haven't seen much of it in the
starship-centric canon, we've seen enough ground combat in Trek to get the gist
of the Federation's techniques and technologies. While we're at it, we'll
also take a look at the Federation's neighbors and adversaries to see what's
common in regimes which enjoy a rough technological parity with the Federation.

First, the
troops have to get to the planet. This part of the equation doesn't change
much whether one's talking about moving troops through space or over water . . .
troop-carrying vessels are needed. We know of a convoy of ships
carrying 30,000 Starfleet troops in "Waltz"[DSN6], though we didn't
get a look at the convoy to see if Starfleet makes use of a specialized troop
transport ship.

If they did, one might expect
something like a Sydney Class or similar transport vessel, or
perhaps something akin to the many colony ships we've heard of, modified for
wartime. On
the other hand, the Federation-Klingon-Romulan (FKR) Alliance fleet, intent on
landing troops on Cardassia in DS9's final episode, didn't appear to have any
obvious transport ships. We had seen Klingon troop transports previously,
though, in "Sons and Daughters"[DSN6] (pictured . . . note Bird-of-Prey for scale).

Of course, they wouldn't really
need to have dedicated troop transports at Cardassia, except
perhaps to prevent large ships like the Galaxy Class from having to do everything.
After all, the total Galaxy volume is
about 5,800,000m³. Per each of the 42 decks, we'd have an average of
about 138,000m³. Of course, we're still working in three dimensions, so we
need to excise the height value. If we divide by 3.5m (just as a rough
average deckheight), we end up with an average floor area per deck of
39,400m². Multiply by 42 decks, and we end up with 1,654,800m².
Some, of course, would be taken up by walls, machinery, tankage, and
other similar elements. If 40% is so employed, then the remaining space
would equal 992,880m², or just under a square kilometer of
room. Not accounting for life support requirements, you
should be able to squeeze in several thousand people easily . . . the
World Trade Center had about a square kilometer of rentable space
and was generally occupied by about 50,000 people.

Mass certainly
wouldn't be an issue . . . Intrepid Class ships like Voyager weighed in
at 700,000 metric tons, and the Galaxy Class would be at least about 10 times
that massive. Thus, if you assume that a Starfleet soldier
and his equipment weighed 400 pounds (181kg), then even with 50,000 troops
you're only talking about adding 9,100 metric tons . . . a drop in the
proverbial bucket.

We
do know with certainty that the Enterprise-D could carry some 15,000
extra people at least, as per the discussions regarding the evacuation
of that many colonists in "The Ensigns of Command"[TNG3].
Given the possibility of 50,000 or more, mixed with the space needed by
soldiers for readiness, supplies, and storage of other materiel, up to
15,000 troops and support personnel seems like a decent figure.
(The alternate-universe Enterprise-D from "Yesterday's
Enterprise"[TNG3], incidentally, was said to be capable of carrying
6,000 troops, though as a battleship her internal configuration was
presumably a bit less cozy.)

All
that having been said, not every starship is rigged for passengers or
possesses lots of extra unused habitable space. Intrepid Class
starships such as Voyager were "built for combat performance" according
to Tom Paris ("The Thaw"[VOY3]). Voyager's crew of about
150 had to double-bunk to make room for 200 Klingons in
"Prophesy"[VOY7], implying that being occupied by 350 people was not in
the design.
And while we might be tempted to think that the double-bunking was only
required because Voyager was chock-full of supplies for the long
journey home, there's also "Friendship One"[VOY7] to consider. In
that episode, evacuation of an accident-ravaged world of 5,500
survivors is planned, and Tuvok notes that it will require 17 trips to
another nearby world. That's an average of about 325 moved per
trip, assuming a full crew remains on Voyager, which would imply a
maximum headcount of 475 personnel. But, as reader "Omeganian"
points out, a skeleton crew on Voyager might push this down further,
perhaps even as low as the 350 of "Prophesy". Suffice it to say,
then, that the Intrepid Class is not much of a passenger liner.

In
"Waltz", the Defiant was expected to escort the Federation troop
convoy, which probably indicates simple lightly-armed cargo-type vessels similar
in concept to the Klingon design above.

Upon
arrival in the system, you have to get the troops on the ground. It's not
known precisely how this is done for one's average Starfleet ground force on
one's average troop-carrying vessel. Though the simplest solution
would be for the vessel to land, it's
more likely -- judging by the normal Starfleet paradigm -- that they would not.

Thus,
how rapidly a transport can offload its troops probably depends mostly on
the number of transporters. Just for
comparison's sake, the Galaxy Class features at least twenty personnel-capable transporter
rooms according to the evacuation instructions in
"11001001"[TNG2], giving the ship one transporter room per every fifty
personnel:

Assuming six people could be transported every 20
seconds in each transporter room, then a Galaxy Class ship can offload some 360
personnel per minute, allowing total evac in less than three minutes. On the other hand,
if we gave Voyager one transporter room per every fifty crew, the ship would
only have three transporter rooms. And yet, Voyager beamed the entire Klingon
crew of 200 off of their exploding vessel in "Prophesy"[VOY7] in under ten
seconds, and did so by way of site-to-site transport to the shuttlebay.
Thus, it's possible that the 360 estimate is low-end, or that there is a
"burst mode" emergency transport option.

On a Galaxy Class ship, there are additional
transporters capable of beaming personnel and supplies over and above the 20+
counted above. This includes Cargo Bay 2 (located on or near deck seven, as per Picard's orders
during the ship evacuation in "Starship Mine"[TNG6]), and Cargo Bays 3
and 11. Both feature a large oval transporter unit seen in "Datalore"[TNG1]
and "Symbiosis"[TNG1], as opposed to the simpler, smaller round model from
Cargo Bay 4 seen in "Power Play"[TNG5]). The large oval
unit is pictured.

And, as long as we're counting, the
smallish, mostly-hollow holoship from Insurrection had 14
long-range transporter units according to Ahdar Ru'afo, and even smaller
vessels get into the game. We've seen
transporters capable of beaming up to five people at once in use on
Type-6 and Type-7 shuttlecraft ("Best of Both Worlds"[TNG4],
"The Outcast"[TNG5], "Gambit, Part
II"[TNG7]). Also noteworthy are runabout transporters
which,
despite only having two actual pads, are capable of beaming six people
simultaneously ("The Ship"[DSN5]) or nearly simultaneously
("By Inferno's Light"[DSN5]). However, this capability
only appeared after 2370, since a rescue operation was hampered in "The
Homecoming"[DSN2] by the fact that only two could be beamed to a runabout
at one time.

Shipboard transporters have also been used
on multiple occasions to beam entire vehicles into the
shuttlebays. This was actually seen in Nemesis with a Reman
Scorpion, and has also been referred to as occurring in with a Ferengi
shuttlepod in "False Profits"[VOY3] and a Type-9 'speedboat'
shuttlecraft in "Real Life"[VOY3] . . . an impressive maneuver
given that the latter is a warp-four-capable vessel. (Picard also
planned to do so with the much larger Type-7 shuttle in
"Deja Q"[TNG3], but his efforts were thwarted by a member of
the Q continuum.)

Suffice it to say, it's likely that a
military troop transport would have plenty of transporter units to allow
for rapid debarkation of troops and equipment.

It's also conceivable that a dedicated transport ship
would have sufficient shuttles and other auxiliary vehicles to offload everyone in a timely manner. On
the other hand, whereas the Enterprise-D could've grabbed the 15,000 colonists
from the "Ensigns..." planet in less than the allotted three days with
transporters, it would take her four weeks and four days with their shuttlecraft
complement. If wartime transports were equipped according to a similar
rationale, then offloading could take a long time if transporters or a large
number of heavier
shuttles weren't available.

Another option, unlikely but available, would be
orbital skydiving. While Kirk's orbital skydiving scene was cut from Generations,
the idea and costume appeared again in "Extreme Risk"[VOY5] on
Torres. As Seven of Nine describes it, orbital skydiving is "leaping
from a spacecraft at exospheric altitudes . . . a curious form of
recreation." Orbital skydiving is more dangerous from higher
altitudes . . . the shuttle pilot in B'Elanna's
simulation warned of danger at 200km, though the nature of the planet in
question is unclear. In any case, I find it unlikely that one would
see swarms of such orbital paratroopers departing a transport ship, though it's
possible that individual insertions could occur in this
manner.

In
large-scale ground battles Starfleet has been known to make use of transporters
for troop insertion and movement, even using ground-based transporter units in situations without starship
support. The dying soldier of "Nor the Battle to the
Strong"[DSN5] made this point, noting that it was only the Klingon use of
transporter scramblers that enabled them to pin down the Starfleet force he was
a part of. The same relocation
maneuver is true of smaller unit actions. "Homefront"[DSN4]
shows the mobilization of Starfleet assets in a planetwide peacekeeping role by
use of starship transporters when Earth and her orbiting habitats and
bases were rendered powerless by
sabotage.

Admiral
Leyton: "Mr. President, we can use the Lakota's
transporters and communications system to mobilize every Starfleet officer on
Earth in less than 12 hours."

Various other episodes have shown away teams
relocating via site-to-site transport, including "Angel One"[TNG1] and
"The Ship"[DSN5].

Such a rapid relocation of assets would be profoundly useful .
. . an almost instantaneous version of the United States chopper-based
relocation tactics of Viet Nam or Afghanistan, which allowed for extraordinary
applications of force concentration against enemy positions. (And, given
that even a runabout can detect and map tunnels and other kilometers-deep underground structures
from orbit ("The Sword of Kahless"[DSN4]), with tricorders having shown similar effectiveness when on the
ground, the tunnelling problems relating to those historical examples would be
moot.)

Star Trek V shows the use of
shuttlecraft for deploying a well-armed landing party, and of course this would
be the expected maneuver if transporters were not available for whatever reason.

Also
mentioned as being a part of Starfleet's forces at Ajilon Prime were
"hoppers". (It is not clear if hoppers were capable
of making orbit, though if they were this would also solve the debarkation issue
nicely. However, the name "hopper" suggests that these ought to
be relatively short-range atmospheric craft.)

Sadly, we never got to see one, though we do
get some reports as to their capabilities. A lone hopper, for
instance, was waiting to evacuate the doctors and patients at the field hospital
where most of the episode takes place. There were no less than 10 doctors and
orderlies, and one of them says that they had over 70 patients that they had to move
to the hopper. Thus, at least one type of hopper is available that can
carry at least 80 people, several of whom would be laid down. Similarly, the dying soldier on Ajilon
Prime refers to a hopper his platoon was boarding. In modern parlance, a
platoon commonly refers to 16-44 soldiers. The hopper is noted as
having sustained a great pounding due to Klingon fire while loading the platoon
. . . the dying soldier had stayed behind to give covering fire, suggesting that
much of the Klingon fire would've been disruptor-based.

Star Trek: Nemesis shows us our first
glimpse of a dedicated Starfleet ground vehicle, the "Argo" shuttle's
associated jeep. It is, for all practical purposes, just a dune
buggy with a fat phaser rifle on the back and a special shuttle to carry
it.

The combination is apparently a special-purpose
system designed for environments hostile to transporters and antigravs (though
trouble with the latter is rare). The use of the shuttle at all is evidence for
the former, along with Geordi's direct statements. As for the latter, we
have several facts. First, antigrav
technology has been used aboard even Earth civilian vehicles since at least the
2150's ("Shockwave, Pt. I"[ENT1]), with Earth and Federation Starfleet
shuttles having employed it for as long ("Strange New World"[ENT1],
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, "The Child"[TNG2], "Unnatural
Selection"[TNG2], et cetera). However, with the Argo we see a
shuttle which, in flight, produces the heat distortions of a hot jet of air
beneath it, and when landing or taking off produces a huge dust cloud like one
would expect from a helicopter or, better yet, a Harrier VTOL jet. These
are not seen in normal antigrav operation. Thus, we have yet to see a
"normal" Starfleet ground vehicle.

As for the Federation's neighbors, we've heard of a Klingon "ground assault
vehicle" in "Elogium"[VOY2], though we know very little about
it. We only know that Torres referred to the fact that it has a device to
remove animals from its path, suggesting that it either rolls on or hovers near
the ground. Then there is the Cardassian "skimmer", mentioned by
Kira in "The Darkness and the Light"[DSN5] as being employed during
the Cardassian Occupation. Kira, in telling a tale of her first engagement
as a resistance fighter, recalls that the vehicle "set down",
then the hatch opened and the first Cardassian appeared. This suggests
that the vehicle not only "skims" or hovers, but is fully enclosed.
Such a vehicle may have been what Garak
referred to in "The Wire"[DSN2] when he claimed to have been a part
of the "Cardassian mechanized infantry". Similarly, "Business as Usual"[DSN5] refers to the sale of 2000
"assault skimmers" by weapons merchant Hagath, though no additional
details regarding the vehicles are given.

IV. Troop Equipment

(See also Lee
Kelly's excellent Phasers.net for
additional discussion on these and other weapons.)

Phasers
are the ever-present Starfleet weapon, and a basic part of any equipment list. From
small units hardly larger than a modern cellphone to large and bulky rifles, phasers are
as much tools as they are weapons . . . but as weapons they truly shine.
Phasers come in three main varieties, popularly referred to by type in keeping
with the "Phaser One" and "Phaser Two" designations from
"Devil in the Dark"[TOS1], referring to the 'hand phaser' and 'phaser
pistol' respectively. There is also the phaser rifle, which is
usually referred to as the Type III.

Phasers
show a number of interesting and very unusual properties separating
them from mere projectile
weapons. They are capable of anything from stunning to roasting
to
dynamiting to "vaporizing" (though seldom does vaporization actually
result in vapor), and have multiple beam width options including a
pencil-thin ray and a
wide-field cone or plane. Last but not least, phaser beams
can be fired in
directions which do not follow the obvious axis of the weapon.
The
direction of the beam generally corresponds to the line of sight of the
person
firing the phaser, suggesting that there may be eye tracking technology
in
use. That would not necessarily be too different than what can be
done today.
Alternately (or perhaps additionally), an auto-aiming feature may be employed,
as implied by Kira in regards to the phaser rifle in "Return to
Grace"[DSN4].
It seems there's even a range-limiting feature for wide-beam
settings.

Our understanding of how phasers do their thing is
rather limited. Commonly referred to as energy weapons, the phaser's beam
is known to be at least partially composed of plain old photons ("The
Outcast"[TNG5]), though this is somewhat confusing given the beam's
slower-than-light speed. There's also some sort of particle stream
involved composed of nadions. Very little is known about these, though
we've heard them mentioned in relation to personal phasers on two occasions ("The Mind's Eye"[TNG4], "Time and Again"[VOY1]),
and in reference to ship phasers as often ("Demon"[VOY4],
"Endgame"[VOY7]). One can safely presume that the more
exotic abilities of a phaser are linked in some way with these particles,
whereas references to the EM properties of the phaser beam (such as in
"Best of Both Worlds, Pt. I"[TNG3], et al.) would refer to the
discharge of photons.

In "The Mind's Eye"[TNG5], Data and
Geordi are in Engineering testing a recovered phaser rifle. Though it turns out
to be a copy of a Federation rifle and of Romulan origin, the following energy
usage comment by Data illicits no apparent suspicion:

A few seconds later, Data mentions that the normal
phaser discharge crystal fires with 86.5% efficiency, which (for example) could
be taken to imply a direct firepower of .91 megajoules per second. According to DITL,
the weapon is fired for a total of 51 seconds. We do not know if the stated draw
is the maximum of the phaser rifle, nor are we told the actual
output/yield. However, given what was seen, the energy cell must have a
capacity of at least 50 megajoules, or the equivalent of over 10
kilograms of TNT.

(Other examples require
that the phasers be even more energetic. "The Galileo
Seven"[TOS1] features the use of phasers drained into a shuttlecraft's
engines to enable it to take off and make orbit. Even reducing the likely mass of
a TNG Type 6 shuttle by several factors, this is at least 5 metric tons that has
to be put into orbit of a world which showed at least nearly Earth-normal
gravity. Even the most ludicrously conservative estimate from this example
would still be in the range of many hundreds of megajoules.)

Of course, we know that hand phasers can
"vaporize" human beings in some manner. Just to vaporize a single
kilogram of water at 37 degrees Celsius requires 2,764,600 joules (2.7
megajoules). Human beings, of course, are made of more than just water,
and commonly weigh in at about 60 kilograms. So, we know that the effective
yield of a phaser should be in the range of at least 150 megajoules, though
this is would not seem to be the genuine level of energy being directed at the
target. Given a phaser's ability to heat and melt rock and
metal, however, energy yields in this range must be present. In TOS, TNG,
DS9, VOY, and Insurrection, we've seen phasers used to heat rocks to
glowing or blow them apart, and we've been told in TOS of nearly 8,000 degree
temperatures being created by phasers.

Given weapons
of such authority, it is clear that there are a number of battle tactics that
simply won't work against Starfleet personnel armed with phasers. Any open-field sort
of combat, be it in the form of firing lines or charges, simply won't be
effective if even one redshirt can poke his head up and get off decent
shots. That means, then, that warfare involving firing lines, massed
troop charges, and other curious throwbacks as seen in the Star Wars prequels just
won't work.

1. Stun Grenades

With a range of several meters, these small
thrown objects
are capable of incapacitating multiple enemies simultaneously. They've
been seen in use on several occasions, including "Shockwave, Pt. I"[ENT1],
"Anomaly"[ENT3], and "Damage"[ENT3]. Stun
grenades ought to have a variable delay timer, given Trip's reference to his
stun grenade being on a three-second delay in "Shockwave".

The mechanism by which stunning occurs is
not clear. They seem to be akin to a flash-bang inasmuch as there is a
very bright light and lots of noise. However, Trip's grenade went
off for almost three seconds, and featured a 'zappy' sound. In "Anomaly", Archer ordered their use in the torpedo
bay due to fear of the armed spatial torpedoes lying near the enemy position,
which would suggest that they aren't powerfully explosive and probably aren't
EMP-based.

In any case, weapons of this particular type are not seen in
use by Starfleet after the 2150's. However, the Jem'Hadar were seen to
employ a simple flash-bang device in "What You Leave Behind"[DSN7].

2. Photon Grenades

Unquestionably
in use are photon grenades. Again, these are weapons which we've
seen little of, but when we have seen them they have been
devastating. In "Arena"[TOS1], we see a small ground
battle between six Starfleet personnel under Kirk, and Gorn forces sufficient to
leave the Enterprise personnel "hopelessly outnumbered", according to
Spock.

The battle begins when a redshirt is vaporized at a range
of "1570 yards" (about .8 miles or 1.4 kilometers). The Gorn
promptly begin firing on the Starfleet personnel. (It isn't clear
what sort of weapon they were employing . . . I've previously assumed that some
sort of shells
were used based on the sound and explosions, but "Friday's
Child"[TOS2] shows that a phaser that will utterly vaporize a person will
also produce large explosions against the ground when apparently using the same
setting. In any case, the beam that zapped the redshirt was invisible,
so
the weapon which
blows Kirk into the armory pit could also be a beam.)

Kirk finally reached the outpost's armory,
returning fire
with a photon grenade launcher. This effectively ended the battle.
Since the Enterprise was also being attacked, there was no opportunity for
beamout, orbital support fire, or shuttle launch.

While we do not know the maximum range of the photon grenade
launcher that Kirk used, we can make some guesses. Kirk fired it in the
direction of the
intervening high ground. The young tactical officer seemed concerned that Kirk would use the
devices at such close range.

Kirk: "An evaluation, Mr. Kelowitz. Where do you think they are?"
Kelowitz: "If I were them, I'd go to the high ground on the right. I'd make it
1,200 yards, azimuth 87. It's pretty close for one of these little jewels,
Captain."
Kirk: "It'll be a lot closer to them. Stand clear."

Photon grenade detonation

The range was probably a bit low. Spock's tricorder
had somehow been overloaded by the Gorn, and since the Gorn were not
visible (according to the statement of a young officer), neither their
destination nor their speed was known. Kirk, not knowing how slow the
Gorn are on foot, may have overestimated their speed. Alternately, it may
be possible that the large force of Gorn had some
sort of vehicle handy. It seems most likely, however, that he was just going for show, making sure that
he landed the photon grenade in front of them to make them think twice.
Given the fact that he also fired a bit off to the left, that seems the most
likely option.

Also, the angle at which Kirk planted the grenade launcher,
coupled with a look at it's apparent designed angles of fire, would seem
to indicate much greater ranges for the photon grenades. Kirk planted it
on a ~45-degree slope, and it seemed to have only a 45-degree or so
possible swivel, around 30 of which he used. In other words, Kirk could
have fired a shallow shot using only the natural 45-degree slope, but instead
he pointed it high, a good 70 degree angle.

I am presuming, of course,
based
on the appearance of the launcher and the appearance of the photon
grenade, that it's a simple gravity-aim device . . . a "dumb bomb", if you
will. It would follow, then, that the device would normally be fired at
ranges of at least two miles (3.2 kilometers), if not more. I'd consider
two miles a lower estimate (considering the young officer's concern, coupled
with the fact that the grenade's effect seemed to reach all the way back
to the buildings behind Kirk when it was fired at 1200 yards).

Given the concern of the young officer at the
range, we can make some guesses as to the yield of the photon
grenade. A 150-ton (625GJ) nuke, for instance, would produce
first-degree burns at just over half a kilometer, according to equations made
available by Carey Sublette,
with
third degree burns at up to 320 meters. When we focus back on
Kirk and
company after the detonation there's also a breeze, implying that there
might've
been very minor blast-related overpressure effects as far back as the
buildings
of the Cestus III outpost. This also suggests something in the
hundreds of
gigajoules range if we use nuclear equations as our guide. Modern
mortar shells, by contrast, can only hope for single or low
double-digit kilograms of TNT, extending their damage by use of
shrapnel.

At any rate, the Gorn bugged out after being
subjected to the photon
grenade, their ship beaming them to safety. It isn't clear whether they had
casualties (or if the whole group was a casualty), or whether they were
simply suitably impressed and decided to make a hasty exit. In any event, we've seen one small example of Federation
artillery. It ended a battle in which a technologically sophisticated enemy
force which hopelessly outnumbered six Starfleet personnel was forced to
withdraw, with "only" two losses on the Starfleet side.

We've
also heard of photon grenades in the 24th Century. Their potential use as
a distraction for a hostage rescue mission was discussed in
"Legacy"[TNG4]. Geordi suggested beaming them into a structure
on a low setting, stating that it wouldn't kill the people in the adjoining
chambers, but that it would "shake them up a lot". Tom Paris
expresses familiarity with photon grenades in "Year of Hell, Pt.
II"[VOY4]. Finally, Admiral Leyton refers to Starfleet having
stockpiles of photon grenades in "Homefront"[DSN4], in an amount he
describes as "enough to equip an entire army".

It
isn't clear just what the hell Picard intended to do with seven metric tons of
ultritium, but suffice it to say that it would be a very large barbecue. A
Bajoran earring composed of the material was considered sufficient to produce a
twenty meter lethal blast radius in "Wrongs Darker Than Death or
Night"[DSN6], so unless it was super-dense, the yield of the material must be
profound even in very small masses. (Judging by the fact it
was an earring and didn't tear Kira's ear off or appear to produce discomfort
when worn, it could not have been superdense.)

Similarly, two Antedeans
intended to blow up an entire diplomatic conference in "Manhunt"[TNG2]
by using the ultritium lining in their robes . . . the robes appeared light and
flowy throughout the episode. A Jem'Hadar warship fired dozens, if
not hundreds, of ultritium concussion shells at a planet's surface over several hours in
"The Ship"[DSN5], as part of a psychological warfare effort to flush
Sisko and company out of a crashed Jem'Hadar warship. It was noted that if
they'd been hit by one, the crashed ship . . . which was mostly embedded in rock
and had already survived uncontrolled de-orbit and smacking into a planet at
high speed . . . would've been destroyed. Though the precise class of ship
involved in the bombardment isn't known, it seems unlikely that these devices
were very large, or else the entire ship would've been filled to bursting with
ultritium. Unfortunately, the detonations occurred at a
sufficient distance to prevent us from seeing them directly, though they were quite
audible.

Microwave pulse detonators seem to be
the preferred method of ignition (at least in non-combat applications), according to
the screen from "Night Terrors"[TNG4].

As
of the 2350's, the material wasn't readily identifiable by
sensors, though by the 2360's a tricorder scan could readily detect it whereas a
transporter could not.

That lack of transporter scanning is noteworthy,
given that in "The Darkness and The Light"[DSN5] we learn of remats,
devices which are intended to negatively affect a person's attempt at
beaming. When employed, they produce a smoking corpse during the rematerialization stage of
transport. It is, in effect, a small and rude version of the transporter
scrambler. Specific scanning and protocols are in place for just such
devices, though they can be rigged to try to confuse sensors. It's
strange, then, that the transporter cannot detect simple things
like ultritium, since a timed ultritium detonation could produce a far worse
result than a remat. However, timing wouldn't really be a necessity . . .
"The Ascent"[DSN5] shows a bomb which is set to detonate if
transported.

2.
Tetryon Pulse Launchers / Isomagnetic Disintegrators

Also
mentioned in the Insurrection weapon list is the isomagnetic disintegrator,
commonly believed to
be used in Star Trek: Insurrection against the Son'a. The weapon's output
was no greater than that observed in "Hide and Q" from the tiny
'cricket' phaser, but it was used at a much greater range than we saw from the
small phaser. That said, it's still unclear why the weapon was being used . . .
a standard phaser or phaser rifle is more than capable of hitting distant
targets.

(In "Hide and Q", the bridge crew comments on what is
believed to be a musket-equipped French regiment heading toward them in Q's
game. We're told that the 100 meter range and questionable accuracy mean
that the weapons hardly classify as such to the Starfleet personnel.

If,
on the other hand, it is the tetryon pulse
launcher, then there may be some logic to its use. You see, tetryons have
some relation to disruptors . . . "Blood Oath"[DSN2] involves
remodulation of a Klingon ship's disruptor cannons to produce a tetryon particle
bombardment of a compound on the surface of a planet. The principle
behind this bombardment was not destruction, but deactivation of the directed
energy weapons at the compound. If the tetryon pulse launcher is
what Worf used, then its limited destructiveness would be irrelevant and
incidental . . . his
primary goal would've been deactivation of the enemy weapons. The
disruptor-like bolt that the weapon fired may support such a notion,
especially given that it is a "tetryon pulse launcher". However, this is just idle theorizing on my part,
as we have no evidence either way.)

3.
Other Explosives

Other sorts of
explosives have been seen from time to time. Reed aboard the NX-01 makes
extensive use of small remote-detonated explosive charges. In addition to
"Regeneration"[ENT2] (pictured), they've been seen in "The Andorian
Incident"[ENT1] and "Detained"[ENT1]. The units come in two
different sizes . . . the large ones are similar in size to stun grenades (and
may actually use the same casing), and the smaller ones are about the size of a
pen or pencil. The largest observed planted charges we've seen were
in use by the the
Voyager crew against the Borg, as can be seen below from
"Dark Frontier"[VOY5]. Three of these "spatial
charges" were carried in a rigid case and used to destroy a particular
piece of equipment on the Borg ship.

The yield of these weapons is unclear,
but given that the bigger ones are all about the size of a photon grenade one would presume
that, at least in the Voyager case, the weapons could be equally as
powerful. At the very least, assuming an ultritium-class explosive of a
size similar to a Bajoran earring, a twenty-meter kill zone seems
likely.

4.
Other Starfleet and Alien Weapons

Starfleet
has a projectile weapon, the TR-116. Though never put in production, it remains
as a readily available replicator pattern. It was developed by Starfleet
Security some years ago
for use in "energy dampening fields or radiogenic environments", but
advancements in phaser technology rendered the weapon moot. More on it can
be found here. Finally, certain weapons lockers aboard a starship include good old fashioned knives,
with sheath. ("Macrocosm"[VOY3]).

Also
of interest is the alien technology of the Federation's neighbors. For
example, we get to see a wide variety of alien beam weapons in "Business
as Usual"[DSN5]. While there is no reason to presume that each
would have a Starfleet analog, it also doesn't follow that these weapons will be
significantly more advanced than those of Starfleet.

"Nor
the Battle to the Strong"[DSN5] also shows us the use of Klingon
shells against personnel. These shells produced rather tiny
explosions compared to what we might expect. They were no
larger than the phaser and Jem'Hadar rifle impacts from "Rocks and
Shoals"[DSN6], and were generally smaller than the Gorn weapon
blasts from "Arena". The shells produced explosions of
variable size . . . the one below is a roughly average-sized explosion
as seen in mid-detonation. The larger explosions demonstrated
concussive blast effects, flopping a crouched Bashir to the ground and
leading Jake to believe he'd been killed.

Bashir runs from a near-miss

Why the Klingons would use such tiny
shells is unclear . . . if the shells were ultritium, for example, then they'd
have to be about the size of a BB (i.e. 0.177cal) or less. Of course,
given that they were targeting the rather spindly Dr. Bashir in his blue
uniform, along with the similarly spindly Jake Sisko in his civilian garb, the
Klingons might've just been having a little fun. But
still, while an ultritium BB gun would be cool, you wouldn't normally go to all the
trouble of using a large number of BBs to clear an area if a couple of hand
grenades would do.

On the other hand, a single Klingon soldier could
theoretically carry a rather large cache of such shells, and the launcher
wouldn't need to be large at all. In a proper operation with a
large number of such shells in use simultaneously (but still not so many as to come close to
matching the volume of a photon grenade), you could clear out a significant area
without significant disruption of the local geology or the enemy's technology,
and without significant use of one's available rounds. This
would also work to just plain freak out the enemy, a tactic used by the
Jem'Hadar in "The Ship", and which worked (whether
intentionally or not) on Ajilon Prime, as the Starfleet soldier who shot
himself in the episode could attest.

Still, on the one hand it seems rather
un-Klingon to use such multi-round 'finesse', instead of single-round raw
overkill . . . but then these are the same guys who like to fly
around in swarms of Birds-of-Prey instead of sending in a few attack
cruisers, so we can hardly say with certainty what they'd use based on
cultural criteria.

Because a common Starfleet ship's away team on a
standard exploratory mission doesn't carry much in the way of defensive gear, it
may be surprising to learn how much defensive technology is
available. Fortunately, we've seen enough special operations and
dedicated Starfleet military personnel to get the gist of what the Federation's
armies might carry to the front lines, including personal forcefield emitters
and light armor tunics.

If knowledge is power, then the Federation
tricorder might be the most powerful tool at the disposal of Federation ground
troops. As reader Raymond Ford puts it: "Tricorders
combine the features of many devices carried by modern infantry (especially the
equipment-heavy United States) - a GPS equivalent, a PDA/laptop equivalent,
various kinds of sensors, etc. Best of all, it combines it all in a handheld
package. This reduces the amount of gear that a Federation soldier needs to
carry."

Though I hesitate to mention them,
they are obviously a Starfleet device carried aboard ships at least in the late
23rd Century, and are not without tactical applications. The US
military was
and continues to
be interested in something conceptually similar. Boba Fett seems to
make good use of a much less advanced version.

Yes, I'm talking about the boots.

In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,
Spock demonstrates the use of little jetboots and what is presumably an
anti-grav belt.

I mention the antigrav nature of the belt primarily
due to the second shot above, which features Spock oriented laterally (with Kirk
hanging upside-down) where the thrust from the boots would of course be of no
value in keeping him airborne. Also noteworthy in regards to the antigrav
concept are the scenes of McCoy and Kirk hanging on to a jetboot-equipped Spock
in an Enterprise turboshaft . . . we see scenes of the men's feet dangling to
the side of the jetboots instead of trying to stand on them. It seems quite
impossible that Kirk's girth and McCoy's age would've allowed them to simply
hang by Spock's neck and shoulders in such a fashion, even considering the moves
(the stunt double for) Kirk made on El Capitan earlier in the film.

Antigrav units have been seen or
referred to fairly often. These usually take the form of antigrav carts,
as seen in ST:TMP, "Hollow Pursuits"[TNG3], and so on. On
smaller scales, we've also seen meter-long latch-on antigravs in "The
Changeling"[TOS2], and heard of antigrav harnesses for climbing purposes
("Bloodlines"[TNG7]), which seemed to be standard equipment in
Picard's mind given his surprise that Jason Vigo did not use them. The
smallest observed antigrav unit is from ST:TMP, and shows what one might call an
"antigrav ladder" (though seemingly not a very safe one, as seen to
the right).

The boot-belt combo was evidently capable of
pretty good thrust . . . Spock was able to flip over and overtake the falling
Kirk in sufficient time to save him when he fell from the face of El
Capitan. And, in the turboshaft scene, the auxiliary rockets on the
boots were seen to propel not just Spock but also Kirk and McCoy up a turboshaft
at a very high velocity, implying a quite remarkable performance from the
boot-belt pair . . . the equivalent of several hundred pounds of thrust at
least, depending on the number of "marshmelons" consumed and the level
of gravity cancellation (or whatever it is) involved.

Though one of the detriments of
jetpacks noted by the military would be exposure to enemy fire, the devices
would be extremely useful on very rough terrain simply as a means of
transport. (And, of course, with a personal forcefield in use, the issue
of exposure to enemy fire could be lessened somewhat, beyond simple suprise
factor or the small size of the target compared to a shuttle or
hopper.) However, having them as boots does serve as a detriment all
its own, since they certainly don't look like they'd be as comfortable as a good
pair of hiking boots. Thus, one of the advantages they might offer .
. . rapid displacement in a pinch . . . is thwarted by the fact that you'd have
to stop and change shoes. This, presumably, is why they are not employed
in Star Trek V's desert crossing to Paradise City.

Nevertheless, one can imagine that the
boot-belt combination might be useful in certain situations when available,
especially reconnaissance and rescue, and could also allow for a new spin on the
"air cavalry" concept. Last but not least, the boots
could be extremely useful as parachute analogs.

We've only infrequently seen starship weaponry
fired in support of ground personnel in Star Trek ground combat (either because no ship is in
orbit, or the ship in orbit is being attacked at the same time as the ground
battle is afoot, et cetera), though when it has been employed it has generally
proven devastating . . . much like airstrikes today.

"Shockwave, Pt. I"[ENT1]
- Archer calls for and receives a precision phase cannonade against a
lunar-docked Suliban cruiser. The move was made in support
of Archer's raiding party aboard the vessel that had become pinned down. Damage
was limited to the area near the approaching Suliban personnel, whereas the Enterprise party
was unharmed.

"Who Mourns for
Adonais?"[TOS2] - Kirk calls in an orbital
bombardment of Apollo's power source structure. The Enterprise was under
attack from the surface at the time.

"The Apple"[TOS2]
- Kirk orders a phaser bombardment of the Vaal structure on
the surface, overloading and destroying its inner mechanism. Though not
under attack per se, the Enterprise was suffering from severe power drain by
the Vaal device at the time.

"A Piece of the
Action"[TOS2] - Kirk, trapped in a 1930's-style
gangster's paradise, orders ship's phasers set to stun and fired on an area of
the surface. Moments later, his intended effort to impress the local
bosses succeeds as the various combatants on the street below are rendered
unconscious.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
- Kirk, having given careful orders to the Enterprise, receives a
low-yield precision photon torpedo hit on the position he was occupying
(before he ran like hell, that is), nearly killing
"God".

Though not quite counting as
air/orbital support fire, the cannon from "The Cage"[TOS] was powered from orbit. The
firepower of the weapon is unclear, but it was thought capable of shearing off
the top of the knoll pictured below in a second or less at less than a
full-power level.

Scaling off of Captain Pike from earlier in the episode,
that suggests that several cubic meters of rock would have been removed quite
rapidly, though whether this would've occurred primarily in the form of an explosion of
debris or as vaporization is unclear.

The
use of air support has unfortunately also been only rarely seen, though again
the results are generally quite good when it is employed.
"Detained"[ENT1] features the use of a phase-weapon equipped
shuttlepod against a prison colony in support of a prison break. Passes by the pod rapidly
resulted in watchtowers being destroyed, at least one large hole being blasted
in the prison wall to allow the detainees to escape, and various other large
explosions being produced. Based on the size of
the hole in the thick outer wall (visible in the episode as detainees escape
through it) and assuming the qualities of concrete, I would estimate the yield to be in the
low-dozens of megajoules.

Though
not a combat situation per se, "The Galileo Seven"[TOS1] features
shuttlecraft used in a support role in a planetary search which featured a
number of landing parties.

"Future's
End, Pt. II"[VOY3] does feature the use of a shuttlecraft weaponry in support of
ground personnel. When an eighteen-wheeler tries to run down Tom Paris on
a desert road on late 20th Century Earth, an approaching Type-9
("speedboat") shuttlecraft blows the semi into debris using its
phasers.

Starfleet's fighter, used to
great effect in the Dominion War, would also be quite useful for ground support
actions. Her armaments include omnidirectional phaser emitters on her
bottom side as seen in "The Maquis, Pt. II"[DSN2], as well as some
stronger fixed-axis weapons of unspecified type seen in use against Cardassian Galor Class
Destroyers at various times in the Dominion War. The Maquis ships fired
normal phasers from this location in "The Maquis", and also featured
torpedoes which launched from the nose.

(It's
worth noting that Captain Keogh, in "The Jem'Hadar"[DSN3], described
the two Maquis vessels as "lightly-armed shuttlecraft". But,
given how they fought three Starfleet runabouts to a draw and considering that
Keogh was questioning the DS9 crew's combat experience, that claim can be
dismissed.)

It's most unfortunate that we never got to see a
well-equipped Federation army on the front lines of a major ground battle during
the Dominion War. (Stupid budgets.) The closest we came was a the field hospital near the
perimeter of a small settlement on Ajilon Prime from "Nor the Battle to the
Strong" (though even if we had been on the perimeter with the troops that
battle was hardly major). And, of course, we saw the worn down,
undermanned, undersupplied garrison from "The Siege of AR-558"[DS9-7],
which had only phaser rifles, tricorders, and attitude.

As a result, most of what we know is what we've
been directly told, and I've tried to avoid inferring more than what's been
said. Nevertheless, what we know of is more than enough to be more than
impressive. As the leader of a 20th Century Rome put it in "Bread and
Circuses"[TOS2], one hundred men armed with phasers "could probably
defeat the combined armies of our entire empire". He was
probably right . . . even without several seconds of dwell time, it's easy to
see how a tank would fare against a phaser beam . . . but the situation would've been far worse if the men were
equipped with more than just their phasers.

Epilogue

Back in early 2000, it was claimed by some of the
more rabid members of alt.startrek.vs.starwars that a Canadian Army battalion
would defeat an equal Federation force. The information provided above is
a somewhat more detailed version of my original response, and yet the situation
hasn't changed . . . the opposition still supports such a claim, and they're
still just as wrong.